Iranian refugee whose life inspired Steven Spielberg's 'The Terminal' dies at Paris airport

An Iranian man who lived inside the Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport for 18 years passed away at the same airport on Saturday.

According to Paris airport authorities, Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who was in his late 70s, died of a heart attack in Terminal 2F of the airport. Nasseri was on his way to England via Belgium and France in 1988 when he lost his documents. He was left stuck in limbo as no country accepted him.

He lived there from 1988 to 2006, first due to the lack of papers to prove his identity and later by choice. He spent his time at the airport writing in his diary and reading magazines. He took a shower in staff facilities and became friends with airport employees.

He had returned to living at the airport again during the last few weeks of his life after spending time at a shelter for homeless people, per a report in The Guardian.

Nasseri, who was also fondly called Sir Alfred by the airport employees, did not give an accurate account of his life.

He initially claimed that he was born in Iran to a doctor father and denied the claim several years later. He added that he was expelled from Iran for protesting against Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's government.

He roamed around Europe before being given refugee status by Belgium in 1981. He was travelling to Britain in 1988 when he arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Since he could not prove his refugee status, French authorities let him fly to Britain but the officials there refused to let him enter, and he was sent back to Paris, where he spent 18 years of his life in a holding area of Charles de Gaulle.

Airport authorities had managed to confirm that Nasseri was born in Iran in 1945. In some of his interviews with various publications over the years, he claimed that he was travelling to the UK to look for his real mother.

He was 23 when his Iranian mother informed him that she was not his real mother and that his real mother lived somewhere in Glasgow. His story not only inspired Spielberg, but also the 1993 French film 'Tombes du ciel,' starring Jean Rochefort.